Questions mount for Scotland’s SNP as Sturgeon quits

Calls mounted within the Scottish National Party (SNP) on Thursday to postpone a special conference aimed at reviving its push for independence, after the surprise resignation of leader Nicola Sturgeon.

After more than eight eventful years as Scotland’s first minister and SNP leader, Sturgeon said on Wednesday she lacked the “energy” to carry on and would step down.

The party’s executive was to meet late on Thursday to set the rules for the leadership race, with no frontrunner emerging and no clear path forward on the dream of independence for Scotland from the United Kingdom.

Sturgeon announced the conference for March 19 after the Supreme Court in London agreed that only the UK government, and not the Edinburgh parliament, could call a second independence referendum.

Scots voted in 2014 to remain part of the UK. But the SNP says that Britain’s Brexit referendum two years later upended the calculus, with a majority in Scotland opposed to leaving the European Union.

But despite Brexit, the UK’s Conservative government has ruled out a second plebiscite in Scotland. Sturgeon summoned the conference in a bid to chart a way out of the constitutional conundrum. 

Her preferred path was to turn the next UK election, due by early 2025, into a “de facto referendum” on separation, but that has left many in the SNP nervous at the prospect of electoral blowback.

“I personally think that party conference should be paused, for obvious reasons,” Stephen Flynn, who leads the SNP in the Westminster parliament, told Sky News.

“I think the new leader should have the opportunity and indeed the space to set out their position, their values and their intentions going forward,” he said. 

SNP president Mike Russell told the BBC that the leadership race was “unlikely” to be over by March 19.

“Therefore there is a question to be asked about whether that should be postponed while a leader comes into place,” he said.

Sturgeon, 52, confirmed she would remain first minister until the SNP elects a new leader, and also stay on as a member of the Edinburgh parliament until at least the next Scottish election, due in 2026.

Opponents and SNP members alike praised her towering presence in UK politics over recent years. But she departs after facing mounting pressure over her tactics on independence and over transgender rights.

And opinion polls point to waning support for Scotland breaking away from the UK since the Supreme Court ruling. 

Possible contenders in the SNP include Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

“I firmly believe that my successor, whoever he or she may be, will lead Scotland to independence, and I’ll be there cheering him or her on every single step of the way,” Sturgeon said.